LA Times - Students, Nuns and Sailor-Mongers, Beware

[DBoon]

Link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-turley17oct17,1,582995.story?coll=la-headlines-oped-manual

(registration required)

About Ashcroft efforts to severely prosecute protestors under obscure, infrequently used laws. Main example is the prosecution of Greenpeace "...under an obscure 1872 law originally intended to end the practice of "sailor-mongering," or the luring of sailors with liquor and prostitutes from their ships."


Quote:

...Ashcroft is now seeking symbols of his own: The image of a major environmentalist organization placed on probation or nuns being sent to jail is clearly meant to send a chilling message from the man who once accused his critics of aiding and abetting terrorists.

Unless deterred by Congress or the courts, Ashcroft will continue his campaign to protect Americans from the ravages of free speech. If he succeeds, it will not be sailors but free speech that will be shanghaied in Miami.

[realFedUp]

1. Jonathan Turley opinion.

good one...but his hindsight is always so much clearer.